How do complexes determine our life?

“Everyone knows we have complexes. What few know, however, is that complexes can have us…” (Carl Gustav Jung).

Hello friends!

More than 100 years ago, Jung – who collaborated with Freud for about 7 years and created Analytical Psychology – was performing his famous Experimental Studies. In these works, which were later collected in the 2nd Volume of his Complete Works, experimental scientific methodology was used to study the mental and emotional functioning of psychiatric patients and people without mental disorders. The result of these researches, however, showed that both seriously mental patients and ordinary people had complexes. Let’s go to the definition:

What are complexes?

Complex is a term created to designate a word or group of words that activate emotions. They are also called affective tonality complexes, precisely because such ideas bring emotions to the surface and, in many cases, the individual is totally unaware of these complexes.

We said that certain words activate emotions, but, technically, it would be more correct to say that words (the sound and the image they bring) are closely linked with affects, with emotions.

In Freud’s psychoanalysis, there is the term Oedipus Complex and in Adler’s individual psychology there is the Inferiority Complex. While they are related – all these terms were coined at about the same time, in the early 20th century – there are also differences.

For Jung, we all have different complexes. We know some of them and others are unknown to us (unconscious). For Freud, the Oedipus Complex is the most important complex, the nuclear complex of the neuroses, while for Adler, the most important complex is the Inferiority Complex, which gives rise to a series of behaviors that aim to overcome it, or that is, to make the individual stand out, overcome his inferiority, thus desiring to be superior.

Therefore, for Jung these two complexes may exist, but, in general, the creator of Analytical Psychology talks about the coexistence of complexes. For example, a person may have a strong father complex, in which the word father (his name) and other words related to the real father have a very strong impact on him; while someone else has a sex complex and someone else has a money complex. The list itself would be endless, as everything that can affect a person can be described as a complex (affection or emotion attached to a word or group of words).

examples of complexes

From an experimental test, the word association test with members of the same family, Jung was able to demonstrate how the complexes of individuals who live in the same environment are practically identical. Note that interesting:

Each line on the graph represents one person, the father, mother and daughter. On the x-axis, random words are arranged so that each associates anything that comes to mind. The y axis, in this case, represents the time each one took to associate (in milliseconds).

Note how from word III to word V, both mother and daughter take almost the same amount of time to respond. According to Jung, this indicates that both have an identical complex. In fact, if we analyze the entire graph, we will see that mother and daughter have identical reaction times.

This would explain why the heterosexual daughter chooses, as an adult, a partner similar to her father. In theory, it’s not because she wants her father, but because she has a complex just like her mother’s. If your mother chose an alcoholic man, she also chooses an alcoholic man, which is why the chosen men look alike.

See the similarity in other families:

In the graph on the page above, in the first one, we see that an identical phenomenon happens with a husband and a wife, that is, both have the same reaction time and the same complexes. In the second graph, which shows the reaction times of the father, daughter 1 and daughter 2, we also see the same phenomenon. Now let’s look at a slightly different graph of these two:

In this last graph, we notice that the two sisters present practically identical reaction times, however, we can already notice a difference. Probably, with the marriage, the married sister’s complexes began to change.

Through these graphs, we observe that the complexes – through the reaction time in a test – directly affect the behavior. It is also noteworthy that people from the same family have very similar complexes.

How do complexes determine our life?

But so far we have said little about the content of complexes. Each word marked by a number in the charts above marks a relatively random but common word. In one of the tests, Jung used these words to begin:

1. head
2. green
3. Water
4. to drill
5. angel
6. long
7. ship
8. plow
9. wool
10. kind
11. drawer
12. 🇧🇷

When answering with the first word that came to mind, psychiatric patients at Burgolzli Hospital and people who worked there (nurses and doctors) would, most of the time without knowing it, reveal their complexes.

For example, a patient who had attempted suicide by drowning took a long time to respond to the word “water” and “ship”. Another individual, suspected of theft, took a while to respond to the word “drawer” because that word denounced his crime (he had stolen a large amount from a drawer).

And what does this all mean? The word association test is a lab-created situation. How does this work on a daily basis?

Well, in everyday life, each person will say and do what is related to their strongest complexes. For example, a person who is afraid of open spaces (agoraphobia) will avoid these places and will even avoid thinking about or imagining them, since the simple word or related words bring the corresponding emotion, in this case, fear. .

You know the phrase that says the mouth speaks what the heart is full of? Nothing could more brilliantly sum up what we are explaining. In an analysis or in psychotherapy, the patient has the time of the session to say whatever he wants. But, as Freud knew well, free association is not free. The associations of ideas will be tied to the complexes.

Thus, if it is a person with a strong mother complex, the mother will take up almost all of the time in the session. If she is a passionate person, the complex related to passion will do the same.

And what is the importance of it?

Simple: the complexes that we have active – whether we know about them or not – end up coordinating our psychic life. The guy who can’t leave the house is as much in the grip of a complex as the businessman who has a strong money and power complex or the nymphomaniac who only thinks about his fantasies. Deep down, and this recognizes Jung at the end of the Experimental Studies, the two most common complexes are the power complex (money, recognition, etc.) and the sexual complex (affection, falling in love, love, sexuality).

And, from this observation, the question arises of how to get out of the complexes themselves…

Well, it is possible to gain more freedom and autonomy by undergoing psychotherapeutic treatment with a psychologist or psychoanalyst. But it is also possible to have more self-knowledge from other activities, such as, for example, Mindfulness Psychology practices

I believe that, in closing, Freud’s phrase is significant: Wo Es war, soll Ich werden, which means: Where was the Id (Es), may the Ego (I – Ich) come. In other words, where the unconscious complexes were, let there be consciousness.

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